A Fox's Depression
by smblz
Summary: AU:The rookie nine become friends in the academy. But when Naruto fails the final exam, his mask cracks, sending him into depression.At night Naruto finds himself in front of a cage and his depression spreads to those close to him.


**Summary: AU. The rookie nine become friends in the academy. But when Naruto fails the final exam, his mask cracks, sending him into depression. The others try to console him, so Mizuki doesn't get to him. At night Naruto finds himself in front of a cage and his depression spreads to those close to him.**

**AN: I have not been around so thats why my stories were not being updated. **

**Dis: Don't own Naruto.**

"talking"

'_thinking_'

'**Kyuubi'**(any demon; including inner sakura)

A Fox's Depression

Prologue

Young Uzumaki Naruto ran happily through the streets of Konoha, not really happily but it looked that way. Actually he was sad, very sad. Naruto had lived his life so far without the love of a parent or the comfort of a friend. Which seemed a lot to handle for a seven year old.

Naruto was wearing blue sandals which were quite worn away. He had a pair of black pants, with the hems tight around his ankles. His shirt was a white, short sleeve shirt with an orange spiral on the front and back. His wild, blond hair was shooting about in all directions. His eyes were a bright shade of blue, but were holding back a lot of pain and confusion. The three whisker marks on his cheeks would make you stare. And finally a big, stupid fake grin plastered on his face.

Heading for his destination while ignoring the glares from the other villagers had become a daily routine for the fox boy. The destination in question was the playground, where many children go to play.

Naruto arrived and started to look around '_Alright! Today is the day I finally make a friend or two!_ ' Naruto yelled in his mind. Many of the adults saw him approach so they gathered up their children and left the playground.

Naruto continued to look around the playground. He noticed a few of the children leaving with their parents.

'_Damn it! Oh well there are a few left._' Scanning the area he saw two boys under a tree. One of them was quite plump with orange hair. The other was lying back gazing at the clouds, he had black hair with some of it tied up so it stuck in to the air. '_They don't look like much fun._' thought Naruto, looking around a bit more he saw three girls at the slide. One of the two at the end of the slide had a short blond ponytail, while the other one had pink hair. '_Pink_'.

They seemed to be trying to give courage to a girl with blueish hair who, from the looks of it, was extremely nervous. '_O..k two loud mouths and one cute, yet shy girl. Strange combination._' Over by the swings was a boy with fuzzy brown hair throwing a stick for a small white and gray dog.'_Oh bugger, dogs don't like me, so thats a no._' Finally his eyes came to rest on a boy sitting near a bush, he seemed to have a weird afro thing. But weirdest of all, he was allowing a large quantity of bugs to crawl around his body. '_eewwww. Damn this was a waste of time._' He sighed. '_Maybe Ill go train or something._' And with that he left. Naruto had recently started the academy and quite frankly he was bollocks. So he trained to make himself better but his chakra was so screwed. He had too much and little control.

He walked through he forest and after a while he heard the sound of a kunai or shurikin hitting a tree. He followed the sound to a clearing and saw a boy about his age. The boy had black hair and pale skin. With white shorts and a blue shirt with a fan on the back. As Naruto got closer he could hear that the boy was muttering something about revenge and re-building his clan.

"What are you on about?" asked Naruto. The boy stopped and glared at Naruto.

Naruto could see tears in the corners of his eyes.

"Grrr. T was saying that I will kill my brother and get my revenge. BUT THATS IS NOT EEN YOUR BUSINESS!" Shouted the boy. Naruto was pissed now.

"WHATS WRONG WITH YOU" screamed Naruto. "You have a family and you want to kill one of them off?" He said more quietly but there was still malice in his voice.

"SHUTUP! You know nothing. I have to get revenge, my brother killed all of my clan!" He said trembling slightly.

"I.I am sorry. I didn't mean to... ya know. Its just, I never had a family, or friends. The adults all hate me and I don't even know why, so they don't let their children near me. So when you said so freely about killing off one of your family I just sort of snapped."Naruto said rather quietly for the blond.

"Oh, I'm sorry too. Uchiha Sasuke."said the boy extending his hand. Which Naruto accepted happily for once.

"Uzumaki Naruto."

From that day Naruto and Sasuke were the best of friend. They trained together and sat next to each other in class. About a year later they were walking home from training when they saw a small girl with blueish hair sitting on a bench. The two boys recognized her from the academy. Hyuuga Hinata.

Naruto asked her what was wrong. She stuttered out that her Father ad shouted at her for being weak. So Naruto being Naruto stormed over to the Hyuuga compound, with Sasuke and Hinata following him. After hours of arguing the stubborn blond got Hiashi to let Hinata come back home. She thanked the boys and blushed when she found herself staring at Naruto. Naruto was confused and Sasuke just smirked. Naruto fell asleep with a grin, he had a new friend.

Over the next few years the trio gained quite a few new friends. The lazy Shikameru, food aholic Chouji, loud Ino, equally as loud Sakura, Kiba the dog boy and strange Shino. Much to Sasuke and Naruto's annoyance, as well as their friends, Sasuke had fan girls. With Ino and Sakura as two of them.

Now they are twelve years old and ready to take the graduation exam.


End file.
